City folks are collecting farm subsidies?

[BaseballCoach (Rev A)]

Fox News: Washington, D.C., doesn't have many farms, or farmers. Yet thousands of residents in and around the nation's capital receive millions of dollars every year in federal farm subsidies, including working-class residents in Southeast, wealthy lobbyists on K Street and well-connected lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

In neighboring Chevy Chase, Md., one of the nation's wealthiest communities, lawyers, lobbyists and at least one psychologist collected nearly $342,000 in taxpayer farm subsidies between 2008 and 2011, according to the watchdog group Open the Books.

Taxpayer subsidies were also paid out to Gerald Cassidy, the founder of one of Washington's most powerful lobbying firms, Cassidy & Associates; Charlie Stenholm, a former congressman; and Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa.

"All of it is entirely legal," said Adam Andrzejewski, founder of Open the Books, a group that created an online database and mobile app to track the subsidies.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Apparently that isn't considered welfare.

BKB

[Buckrub]

It is.

Direct farm subsidies and price supports are almost gone, phased out starting with Gingrich. Federal crop insurance still exists as part of the Farm Bill. The Food Bill also contains SNAP, the Food Stamps Program, which is direct welfare, and has nothing to do with farming.

[Big Muddy]

They may have received them in the past, and certainly, those rich city people did not deserve them, in the first place....but, no more.

Direct payments are a thing of the past, even for active farmers, who the payments were originally designed to help, during times of historically low commodity prices.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Direct payments may have stopped but we spend billions paying subsidies for crop inurance. To the tune of about 9 billion. No means testing, no drug tests, no nothing, everyone gets it that files. The biggest corporate farms of course get the lions share. Corporate welfare for farmers didn't end with the latest far bill. We just call it something different. The drop insurance coverage now pays when a commodity falls below a reference proce.
I'm not bashing farmers, I just don't think Archer Daniels Midland deserves a penny of my money.
BKB

[Captain]

Yea all that money should be going to giving the "poor" iPhones and cable TV.

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[BarryBobPosthole]

I never said that and you know better.

We spend a quarter of a trillion dollars a year on farm subsidies if I remember the number right from when they didthe last Farm Bill. Y'all bitch and kvetch about how government can't do shit, well they keep groceries affordable for everyone. If that's not redistribution of wealth or socialism or any other catch phrase you guys use I don't know what is. I don't hear anyone bitching about this little $250 billion line item.

BKB

[Big Muddy]

Phole, I have no idea how the farm bill affects ADM....but, you might need to check into exactly how crop ins. affects an active farmer.

Your above statement that "crop ins. pays when a commodity falls below a reference point", is simply not accurate.

Just because commodity prices fall, does NOT mean the farmer will automatically have a crop revenue claim paid to him.

It is a detailed formula tied between, both the commodity prices and a percentage of the farmer's actual yield for each insured crop....it's too complex to try to explain it to you, here.

[BarryBobPosthole]

http://farm.ewg.org/


Crop Insurance Badly In Need of Reform
The 2013 Farm Subsidy Database demonstrates that unlimited crop insurance subsidies are badly in need of reform.
Taxpayers pay two thirds of premiums and most of insurance claims when disaster strikes. As a result, crop insurance is now the most costly - and least equitable - component of the farm safety net, costing taxpayers twice as much as direct payments and other subsidies.
Some policyholders annually receive more than $1 million in premium support and more than 10,000 policyholders receive more than $100,000 in subsidies. Because there are no limits on crop insurance subsidies, the largest 1 percent of policyholders annually receives about $227,000 while the bottom 80 percent receives about $5,000.
A handful of states also receive the lion's share of crop insurance support. While some Midwestern and Southern states have received more than $5 billion in subsidies since 1995, most states have received less than $1 billion in crop insurance support.
Crop insurance is also the least transparent part of the safety net. While EWG can report who receives most farm payments, EWG is prohibited from sharing which farm businesses receive premium support. So, taxpayers and policymakers are kept in the dark. In addition to failing to provide the names of farmers, USDA's Risk Management Agency this year refused to provide information about specific policies after providing detailed information in 2012.
Common sense reforms would strengthen the crop insurance program, including payment limits, means testing, and greater disclosure requirements. Farmers who receive premium support should be required to adopt basic environmental protections. There has never been a better time to ask the largest farm businesses to share more of the cost of risk management - net farm income, farm equity, and farm household income are all at or near record highs.
These reforms will strengthen, not weaken, the crop insurance program by making these costly subsidies more fiscally responsible and transparent.
Read less

CROP INSURANCE

The Case for Crop Insurance Reform
Unlimited crop insurance subsidies now cost the taxpayer $9 billion a year and overwhelmingly flow to the largest and most successful farm businesses. Unlike other farm subsidies, crop insurance subsidies are not subject to means testing or payment limits and farmers are not required to adopt basic environmental protections in exchange for premium support from the taxpayer. While some farms annually collect more than $1 million in crop insurance premium support, the bottom 80% of policyholders annually collect about $5,000.

[Big Muddy]

What all of that does NOT say, is how much an active farmer has to pay for "each" of his crop's policies....it is not a blanket policy, which covers ALL of a farmer's crops....we pay a yearly premium for "each" individual crop....i.e., if a farmer double-crops soybeans, behind his wheat, then, he pays a premium for both the wheat crop and the soybean crop....and, his soybean coverage is automatically reduced for each day he is late in getting the soybeans planted, by a certain deadline-date....like I said earlier, it is complicated.

By most standards, here in MS, I am a small farmer....my 2013 premiums cost me over $20,000 dollars, so it ain't all gravy.

[Captain]

I've always found it ironic when I hear someone bitch about farmers with their mouth (and belly) full....
Just saying.

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[Big Muddy]

Cap, just wait until the sheeit hits the fan.....and, it WILL hit the fan, sooner or later....we are great producers, and have spoiled the American public.

$6 bread - $9 hamburger - $7 corn flakes - $11 milk, will look like bargains.

[Captain]

It's coming....
I'll meet you at the Georgia/Alabama line with two fat cows and trade you for a load of grain.... :D

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[Buckrub]

You agree to take SNAP out of the Farm Bill, and I'll agree to take government Crop Insurance out of it. Quid pro quo.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I figured you guys would twistthis shit around to make it sound like I'm bitching about farmers. Well, fuck you. I grew up on a farm, have it in my blood , and all I want it for the whole thing to be fair for everyone. You ain't interested in that.

BKb

[Captain]

I figured you guys would twistthis shit around to make it sound like I'm bitching about farmers.

That's my job! :D

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[Big Muddy]

Dang, that's a little strong, Phole....you posted your opinion, and got opinions returned....think I'll just go finish, cleaning these big ole channel cats I caught, this morning.

[Buckrub]

Yeah. Get thicker skin. You wanted pork removed, I agreed, I wanted MORE pork removed, you got sand in your vagina.

Geez.

Bite me.

[Captain]

Eddie I think that F-Bomb was directed with me firmly in the crosshairs. :D I know Posty's hot buttons and tend to stomp on them a little hard from time to time.
However I see Bucky is working pretty hard on getting his own fbomb.

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[Buckrub]

Nah. Trying to stop getting them.... Failing.

Carry on.